ByNatalie Hoberman,
Contributor.
Ingenuity is dead.
Unless, of course, you find yourself standing on Jumeirah Bay Island—the seahorse-shaped jewel just off the coast of Dubai.
You’ve likely seen the images of the city’s famous islands: engineered beaches, skyline silhouettes from science fiction, sea as turquoise as the tourism boards promised. These islands—rising from the Gulf like they were Photoshopped into place—are barely two decades old. And the backstory? Almost as improbable as the sand they sit on.
